Investigating the Persuasiveness of E-Commerce Product Pages within a Rhetorical Perspective

The results revealed that thepersuasiveness of a product page can be enhanced by applying persuasive means to the design of the productpage; the effects of persuasive mean on the persuasivity of aproduct page are moderated by product typerather than product price.

Abstract

This study investigated how design features on e-commerce product pages can influence their persuasiveness. Aframework incorporating the persuasive functions of logos, pathos, and ethos in classical rhetoric was utilizedand the factors of persuasive mean, product type, and product price were examined. The results revealed that thepersuasiveness of a product page can be enhanced by applying persuasive means to the design of the productpage; the effects of persuasive mean on the persuasiveness of a product page are moderated by product typerather than product price. In addition, combining multiple persuasive means lead to greater persuasiveness thanusing any of them individually. On the whole, the persuasive power derived from the persuasive means thatappeal to users' emotions and the credibility of the product pages is greater than that derived from the persuasivemean that appeals to logic.